Yle
Yleisradio (Finnish), also known as Rundradion (Swedish) or the Finnish Broadcasting Company (English), abbreviated to Yle (pronounced /yle/; previously stylised as YLE before March 2012 corporate rebrand), is Finland's national public-broadcasting company, founded in 1926. It is a public limited company which is 99.98% owned by the Finnish state, and employs around 3,200 people in Finland. Yle shares many of its organizational characteristics with its UK counterpart, the BBC, on which it was largely modelled. For the greater part of Yle's existence the company wasFUNDED by the revenues obtained from a broadcast receiving licence fee payable by the owners of radio sets (1927-1976) and television sets (1958-2012), as well as receiving a portion of the broadcasting licence fees payable by private television broadcasters. Since the beginning of 2013 the licence fee has been replaced by a public broadcasting tax (known as the "Yle tax"), which is collected annually from private individuals together with their other taxes, and also from corporations. By far the major part of the Yle tax is collected from individual taxpayers, with payments being assessed on a sliding scale. Minors, as well as persons with an annual income of less than €7,813 are exempt. At the lower limit the tax payable by individuals amounts to €50 per annum and the maximum (payable by an individual with a yearly income of €20,588 or more) is set at €140.[3] The rationale for the abolition of the previous television licence fee was the development of other means of delivering Yle's services, such as theInternet, and the consequent impracticality of continuing to tie the fee to the ownership of a specific device. Yle receives no advertising revenues as all channels are advertisement-free. Yle has a status that could be described as that of a non-departmental public body. It is governed by a parliamentary governing council. Yle's turnover in 2010 was €398.4 million.[4] Yle operates four national television channels, 13 radio channels and services, and 25REGIONAL radio stations. Finland being an officially bilingual country — around 5.5% of the population have Swedish as their mother-tongue — Yle provides radio and TV programming in Swedish through a department called Svenska Yle. As is customary in Finnish television and cinemas, foreign films and shows are generally subtitled on Yle's channels. Dubbing is used in cartoons intended for young children who have not yet learned to read, as well as many nature and history documentaries ("to avoid spoiling beautiful pictures"). In the field of international broadcasting, one of Yle's best known services is Nuntii Latini, the news in Latin, which is broadcast worldwide and made available over the Internet. Yle was also one of 23 founding broadcasting organisations of the European Broadcasting Union in 1950. Yle hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 in Helsinki, Finland. History Yle's headquarters, known as Iso Paja ("the big workshop"), in Pasila, Helsinki Yleisradio was founded in Helsinki on 29 May 1926. The first radioprogramme was transmitted on 9 September in that year, and this is the date generally considered to be the birthday of regular broadcasting activities in Finland. However, it was not until 1928 that Yle's broadcasts became available throughout the country. After this the broadcasting network was developed and by the beginning of the 1930s, 100,000 households were able to listen Yle's programmes. In 1957 Yle made its first television broadcast tests, and the following year regular TV programming was started under the name Suomen Televisio (Finnish Television). The popularity of television in the country grew rapidly and in 1964, Yle obtained TES-TV and Tamvisio, which were merged to Yle TV2. Colour television broadcasts began in 1969 and broadcasts were fully in colour within ten years. During the past few years, Yle has founded a number of new radio and television channels and in 2007 there was a digital television switchover. A completely new digital channel Yle Teema was introduced, and the Swedish-language FST (Finlands Svenska Television) was moved from reserved analogue channel time to its own digital channel YLE FST5 (now Yle Fem). Five channels were reserved, where the fifth channel was initially used for 24-hour news (YLE24). However, this channel was decommissioned, and the replacement, YLE Extra, was also decommissioned in 2007. Until August 4, 2008, the fifth channel was used to broadcast Yle TV1 with Finnish subtitles broadcast on programmes in foreign languages (without having to enable the digital set-top box's subtitle function). Television ;Yle TV1 *TV1 is the oldest of Yle's channels and also the flagship of Yle. It services as the main news, current affairs and factual journalism channel of Yle with also a number of documentaries, drama, cultural and educational programmes being shown. Satirical entertainment, cinema and shows of British production are also included in its programming. ;Yle TV2 *TV2 founded in 1964 is the main channel for children's, teenagers' and sports programmes though it also shows drama, entertainment and factual programmes. Emphasis in current affairs output is on domestic items,REGIONAL content and citizens' journalism. It broadcasts Eurovision Song Contest for Finland. ;Yle Teema *Yle Teema (English: Theme) is the channel for culture, education and science. It focuses on recordings of performing arts, classical music, art and history documentaries, films and theme broadcasts. ;Yle Fem *Yle Fem (English: Five) is the Swedish-language full service channel broadcasting news, factual and children's programmes and entertainment. It also shows many Nordic films and series and Sami-language Ođđasat. Finnish subtitles are available for most programmes, they can be enabled using the digital set-top box. Outside prime time, Fem shows selected broadcasts from Sweden's Sveriges Television. ;TV Finland *TV Finland is Digital satellite channel showing a selection of Yle's programmes in Sweden. ;Yle Text-tv *Yle Text-tv (Finnish: Yle Teksti-tv) shows news, sport and programme information round the clock. Theme pages on the weather, traffic, work and leisure.[5] As of January 2014 all Yle's TV-channels except TV Finland are available in HD. Radio *Yle Radio 1: A radio channel for culture, in-depth current affairs, and other speech-based programmes. Classical music (concerts by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra), jazz, folk, world music, and religious music also feature. *YleX: A fast-tempo programme-flow channel featuring new music and in tune with popular culture, targeted at 17 to 27-year-olds. The percentage of music is 70%. New domestic and foreign pop and rock and several special music programmes. *Yle Radio Suomi: The national and regional news, service and contact channel, also sport and entertainment. Musical fare comprising domestic and foreign hits, adult and nostalgic pop. *Yle Puhe (formerly Yle Radio Peili): The news and current affairs channel presenting talk programmes from Yle's other radio and television channels. Classical jazz. Also broadcast on digital television. *Yle X3M: The Swedish-language youth channel for current affairs debate and popular culture, broadcasting also news. New pop and rock and special music programmes. *Yle Radio Vega: News, current affairs and culture in Swedish for all audience groups, also offering culture andREGIONAL programmes. Adult pop, jazz and classical music. *Yle Sámi Radio: A Sami-language network covering most of Lapland. Produced in co-operation with SVT and NRK. ;Digital services Yle phased out DAB broadcasts by the end of 2005. Three channels continued to be available as DVB audio services. DVB. *Yle Klassinen: The 24-hour digital supplementary service of classical music also broadcast on digital television. *Yle Puhe ;International services *Yle Mondo Broadcasts in English and other languages, mostly compiled from international radio services. Yle Mondo is available on FM in Helsinki and throughout the country as an audio attached to Digital TV. ;See also :List of Finnish television channels Yle tax Until the end of 2012, citizens paid Yle a license fee for the use of a television, set at 252 euros per year in 2012. The license fee was per location, which could hold several sets (e.g. in a living room as well as a bedroom). The public broadcasting tax, also known as the Yle tax, replaced the license fee in 2013. The tax ranges from 50 euros to 140 euros per person and per year, depending on income. Minors and persons with low income are exempt from the tax.[6] Controversies This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2011) In radio, Yle was a legal monopoly until 1985, when local radio stations were permitted, and maintained a national monopoly until 1995, when national radio networks were allowed. In the past, Yle has been seen in Finland as a "red" or leftist medium. This was true especially in 1965–1969, during the term of Director-General Eino S. Repo, who got the position with the backing of the Agrarian League and President Kekkonen(who was a member of the Agrarian Party), as he was Kekkonen's personal friend. He was accused of favouring leftist student radicalism and young left leaning reporters with programs critical of capitalism that demanded reforms to bring Finland closer to the Soviet Union, and Yle was given the nickname "Reporadio". After his resigning, he was demoted to the position of director of radio broadcasting, on the communist-led People's Democratic League mandate. Repo resigned in 1969, but according to Yle,[7] the "political mandate" remained, as Erkki Raatikainen was named director directly from the Social Democratic Party office. Subsequently, all directors after him until 2010 were Social Democrats. This was ended by appointment of the right-wing National Coalition Party's Lauri Kivinen as director in 2010. During Finlandization and the leftist radicalization of the 1970s, Yle contributed to Kekkonen's policy of "neutrality" by broadcasting the programme Näin naapurissa about the Soviet Union. This programme was produced in cooperation with the Soviets and as such, supported Soviet propaganda without criticism.[8] The appointment of Lauri Kivinen in 2010 excited much adverse comment as he was previously head of the Nokia Siemens group which had sold monitoring equipment to the Iranian Secret Service, allowing them to arrest political dissidents throughout the unrest in the fall of 2009.[9] English-language newscaster Kimmo Wilska was fired on August 13, 2010 - after pretending to be caught drinking on-camera following an alcohol-related news story on Yle News. Wilska's stunt was not well received by Yle management who fired him that same day. Wilska received a lot of support after his termination. Yle has been criticized for buying lots of HBO series as wasting taxpayers money on them. Yle has responded to criticism emphasizing suitability of series to channels with no adBREAKS, quality and low price of HBO programming and stating that American programs even with HBO form only 7% of Yle programming.[10] Decision to close shortwave The broadcasts on shortwave from Yle were closed at the end of 2006. Expatriate organisations had been campaigning for a continued service, but their efforts did not succeed in maintaining the service or even in slowing the process. The decision also affected a high-powered medium wave on 963 kHz (312m). A smaller medium wave covering the Gulf of Finland region (558 kHz, 538m) remained on air for a few more years. Parliamentary question about shortwave Conservative[citation needed] member of parliament Mr Pertti Hemmilä submitted in November 2005 a question in parliament about the plans of Yle to end its availability on international shortwave bands. In his question MP Hemmilä took up the low cost of the world band radio to the consumer travelling or living abroad. In her response the minister for communication and transport, Mrs Susanna Huovinen (sdp) noted that Yle would now be available via other means such as satellites and the Internet. She also underlined the fact that Yle is not under government control, but under direct parliamentary supervision. (The link above leads to texts of the question and the response in Finnish and Swedish at www.eduskunta.fi) [11] List of Yle managing directors *L. M. Viherjuuri 1926–1927 acting *Yrjö Koskelainen 1927–1927 acting *A. Deinert 1927–1927 acting *Hjalmar Voldemar Walldén 1927–1945 (changed name in 1935 to J. V. (Jalmar Voldemar)) *Hella Wuolijoki 1945–1949 *Einar Sundström 1950–1964 *Eino S. Repo 1965–1969 *Erkki Raatikainen 1970–1979 *Sakari Kiuru 1980–1989 *Reino Paasilinna 1990–1994 *Arne Wessberg 1994–2005 *Mikael Jungner 2005–2010 *Lauri Kivinen 2010– Category:Finnish radio Category:Television in Finland Category:Publicly funded broadcasters Category:European Broadcasting Union members Category:Multilingual broadcasters Category:Commercial-free television networks Category:Companies established in 1926 Category:Television channels and stations established in 1958 Category:1926 establishments in Finland Category:Companies based in Helsinki Category:Peabody Award winners